Carlock: No shoes would be good news for president

In this image from APTN video, a man throws a shoe at President Bush during a news conference with Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Sunday.

Editor’s note: Night online editor Judy Carlock reviews the news of the week, with her own personal twist.

It just won’t do, throwing shoes at the U.S. commander in chief. The slapstick elements of President Bush’s encounter with a disgruntled shoe-throwing Iraqi of course elicit laughter. But this could have been serious.

The incident this week stuck a fork in this particular presidency. How can we say we’ve made Iraq safer, when even a press conference can’t be managed without an assault?

On Wednesday, the Citizen ran an analysis piece indicating the shoe-thrower has become an instant hero in the Arab world. But not everyone agreed. Sensibly, some Middle Easterners cringed at the behavior. A cathartic moment, to be sure. But stupid, rash and potentially damaging for Iraq’s emerging image.

Even if you think Bush a heel, he hasn’t been a loafer lately. Kudos to the president for taking a final swing through Iraq and Afghanistan. Troops there needed a boost.

If Iraqi unity takes the form of contempt for Bush, at least it’s unity. Contempt for America we can’t afford.

ANOTHER ‘W’: No matter what you think of Dubya, surely a Wildcat win against Gonzaga was a welcome way to start the week. The Zags were favored by 15.

But University of Arizona hoopsters apparently meant it when they said they embraced the role of underdog. They shone against then No. 4 Gonzaga, a Washington state college that shed its “Cinderella” image some time ago.

Interim coach Russ Pennell said afterward he accepts that he’ll never be head coach for the Cats. Arizona, a name-brand program, needs a name-brand coach. Such is the reality of recruiting, he said.

Still, it will be interesting to see how far he gets on merit alone. If UA keeps playing the way it did Sunday maybe people will know his name.

FISCAL FITNESS: The new presidential administration can’t take over too soon for some people.

In Arizona, the wait should be welcome.

Janet Napolitano is still governor – and as such still can influence the state budget.

No aspersions against legislators here. They and incoming Gov. Jan Brewer, now secretary of state, soon enough will have to face a situation where conservative ideology alone won’t balance the books.

Arizona simply must proceed as if revenues will rebound. That doesn’t mean waste. Of course we need real cuts. But we also need smoke, mirrors and creative bookkeeping just to meet our no-deficit mandate.

Otherwise, the dismal math demands that state governance cease immediately.

Nationally, the situation is much the same, allowed Arizona’s senior senator, John McCain, in a visit to the Citizen Tuesday.

Of course we’re just bailing out the boat. But what are the choices? Go under?

CASE CLOSED: The official announcement of closure in the slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh left me with the same questions his father, John Walsh, had.

Who could want to do this?

As it turns out, a drifter name of Ottis Toole – who has been dead 10 years, and who looked like everyone’s image of a child-snatching serial killer. “Stranger danger” may be overrated, a sociologist suggested. And certainly kids face hazards even in their own homes.

Still, kids do get abducted by strangers. And the Walsh case – and plenty of local cases, too – leave me with an even bigger mystery: How?

How does anyone get past seeing such a precious light snuffed out?

I can’t imagine. But a salute to Walsh and people like Tucson’s Gail Leland, who have somehow worked through grief by trying to help others. How do they do it? God knows.

In much of the Middle East, residents sympathized with an Iraqi who hurled his shoes at President Bush Sunday.

Producer: JUDY CARLOCK/Tucson Citizen

Slide 1 of 11 [Next | Previous].In a photo taken from video, President Bush dodges a shoe.Source: The Associated PressSlide 2 of 11 [Next | Previous].Palestinian demonstrators hold up shoes and a portrait of President Bush during a demonstration against Israel's separation barrier and calling for the release of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, in the West Bank village of Bilin near Ramallah, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at Bush during a news conference was beaten and had bruises around his eyes and other parts of his face, a judge said Friday.Source: The Associated PressSlide 3 of 11 [Next | Previous].A Turkish leftist holds a model of shoe as he marches to the U. S. Embassy to protest against the invasion in Iraq in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday.Source: The Associated PressSlide 4 of 11 [Next | Previous].Relatives of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi who threw his shoes at Bush hold banners with his portrait and slogan that reads: "Release the Son of Iraq Munthadar al-Iraqi" as they demanded his release outside the Green Zone in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, Dec. 19, 2008. Al-Zeidi "was beaten in the news conference and we will watch the tape and write an official letter asking for the names of those who assaulted him," judge Dhia al-Kinani, the magistrate investigating the incident, told The Associated Press.Source: The Associated PressSlide 5 of 11 [Next | Previous].Photos of President Bush with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and shoes left by demonstrators who marched to the U.S. embassy in Ankara, Turkey, to protest against the invasion in Iraq and to express the solidarity with Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi. Zeidi threw his shoes at Bush during a press conference in Baghdad on Sunday, while yelling in Arabic: "This is a farewell kiss, you dog, this is from the widows, the orphans and those who were killed in Iraq."Source: The Associated PressSlide 6 of 11 [Next | Previous].Thousands of Bahrainis respond to a protest call by Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. A few shoes also were held aloft.Source: The Associated PressSlide 7 of 11 [Next | Previous].Egyptian activists hit a poster of Bush, with a shoe, during a protest, in Cairo, Egypt, Thursday against the detention of Iraqi TV reporter Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who threw his shoes at President Bush.Source: The Associated PressSlide 8 of 11 [Next | Previous].A Lebanese university student holds a photograph of Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi during a demonstration in Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday.Source: The Associated PressSlide 9 of 11 [Next | Previous].An Indian demonstrator shouts slogans, holding a shoe and a photo of Bush during a protest in New Delhi, India, Thursday.Source: The Associated PressSlide 10 of 11 [Next | Previous].Um Sa'aad, a sister of Iraqi journalist Muntadar al-Zeidi wails as she holds a shoe of her brother at his apartment in in Baghdad Monday.Source: The Associated PressSlide 11 of 11 [Next | Previous].A shoe is raised during a protest against Bush on Monday.Source: The Associated Press

Citizen Online Archive, 2006-2009

This archive contains all the stories that appeared on the Tucson Citizen's website from mid-2006 to June 1, 2009.

In 2010, a power surge fried a server that contained all of videos linked to dozens of stories in this archive. Also, a server that contained all of the databases for dozens of stories was accidentally erased, so all of those links are broken as well. However, all of the text and photos that accompanied some stories have been preserved.

For all of the stories that were archived by the Tucson Citizen newspaper's library in a digital archive between 1993 and 2009, go to Morgue Part 2